Monday, 20 May 2013

4 in 10 Teens Admits to Texting While Driving

As many as four out of every 10 American high
school students admit to texting while driving, even though there's evidence
that shows that such behaviors increase their risk of being involved in a car
accident.

The data that was analyzed by scientists at
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involved 7,800 American high
school students who had just received a driver’s license. These drivers were
surveyed about their driving habits, and were specifically asked whether they had
texted while driving at any point during the past month. About 43% of the
respondents in the survey admitted that they had.

Male teenagers were found to be much more
likely to text while driving, compared to female teenagers. As many as 46% of
the male teenagers responding to the survey admitted to having texted over the
past month, compared to 20% of female teenagers. Teenagers were also much more
likely to text with an increase in age. Teenagers above the age of 18 were
found to be much more likely to text with rates as high as 52%. Among the below-15
age group, the rate was just 26%.

Reading or sending text messages while
driving is one of the most dangerous practices for high-risk, inexperienced teenage
drivers. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any Phoenix car accident lawyer that teenagers who text while driving were
found to be much more likely to engage in other kinds of risky behaviors. These
teenagers were found to be much more likely to engage in unprotected sex, and
also much more likely to use indoor tanning devices. They were also much more
likely to drive under the influence of alcohol.